5
comments:

Eric
said...

Alas, the madness continues...

The shop small/shop local trend seems to be continuing unabated by logic or reason. I would like to know if Ms. Bradley has any financial incentives in promoting this idea? Is Ms. Bradley promoting these "Cash Mobs" out of pure altruism, or because it will benefit her clients or a local trade association of some kind in the Matthews/Mint Hill area?

These campaigns are based on a fallacy. The RelyLocal web site contends that every dollar spent in a locally owned business " creates up to 3-1/2 times more local economic benefit than dollars spent at a chain." In practice that is simply ot true and the proponents of these sites eithe know or should know that they are perpetrating a hoax.

In order for that statement to be true, even assuming the 350% multiplier to be accurate, every bit of economic activity associated with the transaction would have to be local in nature, and every bit of economic activity associated with a transaction at a chain outlet would have to NOT be local in nature. That is literally NEVER the case. For example assume that you buy a cup of coffee at a locally owned coffee shop instead of at Starbucks. The equipment used to produce and serve the coffee is not going to be locally produced at either shop. The coffee is clearly not going to have been grown locally, and the employees who are paid to serve you that cup of coffee are clearly local in both cases. The only component that is different is the owner. And that means that the only money that can possibly remain in the local community in the local store that would not remain here at the chain is the profit in excess of what the chain would pay for a manager. That is likely to be a very small number.

That is true of almost all businesses that sell goods. The real winner in all "buy local" campaigns are the owners of the businesses concerned. The impact on the community at large is negligible.